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A Hep C Love Triangle

Vertex pairs up with GlaxoSmithKline and Johnson and Johnson.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals(NASDAQ:VRTX) has found not one but two new beaus, although it's keeping the relationships casual.

For a disease like hepatitis C where combinations will be the new norm, getting in bed with as many players as possible is critical. Assuming of course you're not Gilead Sciences(NASDAQ:GILD) or Abbott Labs(NYSE:ABT), which have all the drugs they need to make a decent combination on their own.

Vertex doesn't. It has VX-135, which looks like it might be a decent nuc, but it needs to combine VX-135 with other drugs to reach the high cure rates Gilead and Abbott have put up.

Simeprevir is a protease inhibitor that's in the same class as Vertex's already-approved Incivek. Vertex is hedging its bet with this partnership because it's generally assumed that the second-generation protease inhibitors will be better than Incivek and Merck's (NYSE:MRK) Victrelis.

Johnson & Johnson and Vertex will split the cost of the phase 2 trial scheduled to start early next year. Once they see that data, they'll presumably figure out a development plan because the current deal doesn't extend beyond the proof-of-concept study.

The deal with Glaxo has a similar structure. The companies will split the cost of a phase 2 proof-of-concept study combining VX-135 and NS5A inhibitor GSK2336805 with or without ribavirin, a generic drug. That pair is shooting for starting that trial early next year.

Left out in the cold is Bristol-Myers Squibb(NYSE:BMY), which also has an NS5A inhibitor called daclatasvir. The drug worked well with Gilead's nuc GS-7977, so it's curious that Vertex went with Glaxo's NS5A inhibitor rather than daclatasvir.

Of course, considering that the deals seem pretty casual, Vertex might be able to partner with Bristol as well.